Sunday, 16 June 2013

Fandom: The Relationship between Audiences and Films Part 6

Films do not just have
the potential to have an effect on audiences but also audiences can have an
affect on films. With fandom it can go both ways. Fans are people who love a
particular film, genre, character or star and they share camaraderie with other
fans. Sometimes being a fan can involve a huge range of activities such as
attending conventions, dressing up, writing fan fiction, blogging, starting a
website, attending premieres, collecting merchandise, writing fan mail or even
getting into film production and referencing the films you are a fan of.

Though the films have clearly had an effect
on the fans by making them get obsessed and turning the film into a hobby for
the person, the fans also have an impact on the film. They turn it into more
than a film, making it a cultural phenomenon such as Star Wars. Fans are now becoming
filmmakers so Kevin Smith references Star Wars in most of his movies and J.J.
Abrams is now making a Star Wars movie after being a huge fan of the original.
Fans have expanded the Star Wars universe by writing their own fan fiction and
their continuing love for the franchise has led to more and more sequels. Some
fans have even gone as far as to call ‘Jedi’ their religion and some Trekkies
have learned the (fictional) language Klingon from Star Trek. Some Avatar
fans were even reported to be feeling depressed or suicidal as they could
not visit the fictional planet Pandora. How much of this is really believable is
debatable but there can be no doubt that fans take films very seriously and
films can have a big impact on peoples lives.Check out this story on the tension between fans.